The Sound of Silence

[Daniel Cary]

"In restless dreams I walk alone"

 

[AZDAVE]

I go to the woods/bush/water for solstice and quite to hear what nature has to say.

 

[BonUm16]

OT, There were times when music was most welcome. Back before satellite radio and piped in music. droning along at 8000 ft. listening to a southern AM country channel on the ADF was highly enjoyable.

Your comment brought to mind a few lines from a favored song, Hogpatrol.

“Switching it over to AM
Searching for a truer sound
Can't recall the call letters
Steel guitar and settle down”

“Catching an all-night station
Somewhere in Louisiana
It sounds like 1963
But for now it sounds like heaven”

 

[C.W. Richter]

'Could say a lot more on this topic of consumerism and mand-made crap that goes completely against Nature, but the closest ever did I get to music in the field was going out grouse hunting with an old-timer and his dogs at one of the family farms...he's 200 yds away in secondary successional growth (where g-birds thrive-fallow overgrown old farm fields), gets to the highest point with the 270 degree views of the valleys and mountains distant, on a perfect Fall day (just like today) and he begins belting out "The Hills are Alive...With the Sound of Music!!!" I cracked up and just about died laughing-and so did he!!! (That was his humorous way of communicating-"I'm over here!" I let music fly in 2000 when I stalked a very nice buck in his bed and shot him at 60 yds with my trusty (overkill for that shot!) 300 WM. I let out an uncontrollable, primal native American sort of "Yahooooooo!!!" call...which led to two other distant hunters coming over to help me drag him out! Nature makes its own, beautiful music. Like the brown Hammer Kops in Southern Africa. 'Can't get enough of that music!!! As my fam is very musical, back at camp we do often play instrumental music here and there while resting (it used to be on Sundays, but now that hunting is allowed, it's oddly curbed the tradition a bit.) Camp now has cable wi-fi, a smart TV, always a stereo...but those are used most outside of the hunting seasons. We're just too tired after all of the good work is done...How many deer are missed due to music playing in lieu of hunting?? LOL <buys bluetooth high end speakers/ear buds for all younger neighboring hunters as an early Xmas present from Santa> ***may cause brain cancer a la Neil Peart. The silence in Nature is simply absence of unnatural sounds...if you LISTEN, nature is actually quite full of its own distinct beautiful sounds all all types...the wind rustling leaves, the drumming grouse, pileated woodpeckers, bawling fawns. Have you ever heard the death moan of a bear??? You will NEVER forget that one. It's typically preceded by a somewhat unnatural loud noise, but one of the sounds "in nature" I love most is the echo of a .300 WM upon firing in the proper topography to enjoy its literally deafening music...Enjoy either way. "Dig the Sounds. It's ALL Freedom!" -J.M. Hendrix

 

[DieJager]

I'll just listen to the sound of the environment. Sitting in a high seat is the ultimate stress reducer for me. Dozing off, fighting your eyes in the slowly falling or rising sun, just to be instantly awake when spotting deer, rising adrenaline. No music needed for me.

 

[Badjer]

I work in a noisy environment. I immerse myself in silence as much as possible. Even at home. If you want noise, wear earbuds. A majority of people don't like your music anyway. (no matter what kind it is)

 

[Badjer]

I find it the height of conceit to assume that other people want to hear your choice of music, exotically in a setting that is traditionally quiet.

Don't get me started on the morons who can't talk on the phone "IN THEIR HAND" without having it on speaker. It's narcissistic and rude.

 

[MS 9x56]

Don't get me started on the morons who can't talk on the phone "IN THEIR HAND" without having it on speaker. It's narcissistic and rude.

And they damn sure ain’t hunting!

 

[R eight]

On second thought. I haven’t heard silence in over 50 years. Tinnitus; the constant ringing of cycardas in my head.

 

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

I’m seeing more and more ads for Bluetooth speakers for the sportsman. Waterproof and rugged, they allow the sportsman to tote their favorite music along for the adventure. Like so much of modernity, this whole concept is lost on me.

Presumably, music aficionados aren’t blasting their jams while sitting in a tree stand or hunkering down in a duck blind. No, I think (hope) that they are listening to music, or sports or whatever before or after the hunt. Although I wouldn’t discount the chance of such dumb assery.

But even pre or post hunt usage seems like a sad loss of the true experience. Chatting with friends and family while you are pulling on your waders. Enjoying a fine whisky, or whiskey, around a crackling camp fire. Hearing Bush Babies. The cacophony of bugs. These sounds are as important to me as anything heard in the field. No music ever performed can compare.

@Doug3006
The only music I want to hear in the bush is the sound of the bush itself, the crackle of the fire, the sounds of friends talking and laughing and the sound of a gunshot at game.
To me this is the music of the hunt. If'n I want Bluetooth music I will stay home and listen to it.
Even when my son and I go hunting the first question he asks is do we have phone and internet reception. If I say yes he says we need to go further out I don't want that in the bush I'm trying to get away from all that. Even at 20 he just wants the sound of the bush along with the peace and serenity.
Bob

 

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

I have found it does not affect the deer. Before my father died he would take his radio on the blind and listen to football games. 10 feet in the air the deer don’t hear it. I take my phone and blue tooth speaker and listen to tunes while sitting there.

@wesheltonj
As the old saying goes,
Music tames the savage beast.
So maybe it makes the animals are calmer before you shoot them.
Ha ha ha Ha
Bob

 

[Rimbaud]

I have very fond memories of driving in a Land Crusier at 100 MPH+ on the Trans Kalahari Highway as we listened to AC/DC at a very high level. We had just finished an incredible hunt for plains game in Namibia and were headed to a beach town. The PH had incredible taste in music, and an extremely eclectic play list. We even listened to Wagner.

 

[dchum]

I too am not a big music listener while outside or while at the beach even. Sounds of nature are rare these days as has been pointed out.

But even on Hemingways first safari in the 30’s
Philip “pop” Percival would put on tunes.

Percival would crank the gramophone and Hemingways newly wed second wife (Pauline) would dance with Percival while Hem laughed and watched them in a canvas tent.

It’s good to let loose after a few drinks and laugh. Just not every night for me haha.

 

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

Yes the world has shrunk but it doesn’t mean you can’t learn the art of listening to the silence…..or the chewing of leaves…the warning of a bird call…the snap of a branch…..or the fall of a hoof…..you won’t hear that with the background noise of the world in your ear…..to me going hunting is to get away from it all not take it with you.
I may have quoted you, I’m not having a personal dig, just saying for me if it’s a month or an afternoon I’m doing it to get away from the every day grid. I don’t even take a radio fishing. If I’ve got mates with me what’s wrong with plain old conversation we have enough blah blah blah in our everyday lives…

@Sideshow
Fortunately we are old enough to remember what a good conversation is and are still able to have such things and appreciate them.

I feel sorry for the newer generations coming thru life. The majority of them only communicate via txt or social media. My mate Greg's daughter has a friend that live 2 houses away. They communicate via txt or some social media platforms. I said why don't you just get off your arse and go and see here it's only 50 meters away. Reply this is easier.To me they seem to have lost the art of communication. Very sad.

Fortunately my 20 year old son appreciates getting away from the hustle and bustle and bullshit of everyday life and just enjoy the peace and serenity of the bush. Plus he loves the smell of burnt gunpowder in the morning.
Bob

 

[baxterb]

There’s a phenomenon, it’s never been given a name, near as I reckon. I call it; Auditory Deprivation Syndrome.

As a society we are so accustomed to constant auditory input. When guys go out deep in the bush, where the silence is deafening, it works on their psyche. The brain (my observed opinion only) doesn’t know how to cope with the silence. So.. the brain, trying to salve the conscious mind, “creates” something familiar. A noise. To calm the conscious mind. It’s different from person to person, but some of the more popular sounds I’ve had clients SWEAR they hear are: music (a stereo), generators seem to be real popular, and most annoying of all, “metal” sounds.

I had a client get fighting mad when I tried to explain to him that his mind was playing tricks on him.

I say, go for it. Mount your ear buds. Listen to your stuff. I quit guiding because nobody was seeing, hearing, smelling, feeling what I tried hard to point out.

We will never live today again. Not as long as we live. I choose to have those moments uninterrupted.

I don’t think you are crazy at all. I remember backpack hunting for turkey one year and it was dead quiet at night the the sounds my ears/mind made kept me up. It was like a weird squelching sound / probably similar to the “metal” your clients describe. I have tinnitus but this is different.

 

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

My thoughts are very similar to yours. I never have a radio on except for weather updates. And I love having a GPS and a PLB in my pocket.

But, having those things available, even if I don’t use them, still makes the back country less remote.

@R eight
Our son bought us a PLB for when we are travelling incase TSHTF. its small and can be used works wide. As he hunts a lot in his own he takes it with him for the same reason. He loves the peace and quiet.
He lets us know he will have no phone reception but lets us know the area he is hunting. When he gets phone reception he lets us know he is in his way home. Keeps his mum happy. She has come to accept that he was taught well in bushcraft and hunting and can take care if himself.
Bob

 

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

I have very fond memories of driving in a Land Crusier at 100 MPH+ on the Trans Kalahari Highway as we listened to AC/DC at a very high level. We had just finished an incredible hunt for plains game in Namibia and were headed to a beach town. The PH had incredible taste in music, and an extremely eclectic play list. We even listened to Wagner.

@Rimbaud
WOW A LAND CRUISER DOING 100mph.
The only time I've seen one do that speed was down a steep mountain and off a cliff.
Now if it was a NISSAN I could understand it but a LandCruiser you would have it go faster pulled but a team of donkey.
When we were in Namibia the locals with a donkey and cart with the family had what was called a Kalahari Ferrari. If you saw a donkey on the side of the road it was a replacement motor for said vehicle.
Bob

 

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

I go to the woods/bush/water for solstice and quite to hear what nature has to say.

@AZDAVE
I think you mean solace ( peace and quiet)
Not solstice that is the summer and winters longest and shortest day
Bob

 

[baxterb]

@AZDAVE
I think you mean solace ( peace and quiet)
Not solstice that is the summer and winters longest and shortest day
Bob

Maybe he’s a Druid???? ;-)

 

[Hornedfrogbbq]

I just played Ride of the Valkyries in our dpve field as loud as my JBL Boombox 4 would go. Didn't bother the birds at all...and had everyone in the field cracking up.

Otherwise I have been know to listen to a podcast in a blind. Love nature sounds, sometimes like podcasts.

To each their own.